King County Metro signs landmark deal to welcome new bus manufacturer to North America, expand zero-emission fleets
King County Metro signs landmark deal to welcome new bus manufacturer to North America, expand zero-emission fleets
King County Metro has contracted with European bus builder Solaris to buy up to 16 zero-emission buses. This marks Solaris’ first contract with a U.S.-based transit agency and represents the compan…
I wish we would spend that on maintenance and expansion of the electric trolleybuses. Makes more economic sense in comparison to electric battery electric buses. Or spend more on conventional buses and staff, since private car usage is far more environmentally damaging than a diesel bus fleet.
It's just not viable, there's literally only a single company that makes the equipment for the overhead wire system anymore and it's monstrously expensive. Or at least that's what I was told while I was working there by the mechanics when I would talk to them. And from what I was hearing it was sounding like the company that was doing it doesn't want to do it anymore so I wouldn't be surprised if the goal is to drop the overhead wire trolleys eventually
Given every city has busses, I would think focusing on the would be better. Much more likely to electrify busses than roll out new rail based transit.
Idk battery electric buses have tire pollution and dirty batteries. (At least with catenary the battery is minimized) And the battery ones still use diesel for heating in northern winters. Trolleys don’t have either of those problems.
Nice. Good job metro!
Good luck. Other cities signed on with Proterra and were left with non-working buses after the company went bankrupt.
Well, Solaris has a decade-long track record of success across Europe, so this might not be the worst idea.
Good to know!